A Legato Lullaby
by Sonya Omun
Summary: When a troubled Knives is plagued by insomnia, Legato attempts to aide his master. One-shot.


**A LEGATO LULLABY**

Endless. The days were endless. Tortuous hours where loneliness ate away at his insides with the blistering intensity of the two suns far above. He often mused how his soul felt as barren as the desert wastelands – life slowly being scorched away from the surface that cracked with decay.

The nights were worse.

When the suns finally set, the issuing night's tranquillity mocked him. The coolness brought on by a gentle breeze made the dark world around him too peaceful! It only served to remind him how he _should_ be relishing the conditions, but could not. Not if he wasn't whole! In his room, Knives started pacing.

It had been many nights now that any and all sleep had eluded him. So many thoughts plagued his mind. Humanity still marred the world's surface. Plants were subjugated, enslaved to human ignorance and exploitation. However, the red line through all of his frantic pondering was the image of the scarlet-clad Vash.

Gritting his teeth, Knives slammed his fist into the wall. The marginal pain was far from enough to over-shout his thoughts. With a groan, Knives fisted his throbbing hand in his hair.

Vash continued to evade him, as ever denying his status as an elevated being. And he suffered for it. Knives could feel it, a continuous glow of misery in the back of his awareness.

Knives never wanted Vash to suffer. If only Vash could understand what Knives was trying to teach him, then Knives wouldn't _have_ to make his brother suffer! Until Vash opened his eyes to the fact that the human condition had degenerated into a rampant disease, Knives would have to keep reminding Vash of mankind's horrid nature.

That didn't stop the pain that kept Knives from rest, like he knew it also did with his twin. Ceaselessly, Knives paced. His eyes were lined from fatigue, spread wide and unseeing, focussed on nothing in particular in his darkened chambers.

'Why, Vash? What do spiders have to offer you? They hunt you – hunt you like an animal.' Pivoting as he reached the far wall, Knives continued stalking through the gloom. 'I'm only trying to make you see. _Why will you not see?!_ It's not my fault that humans grow from a corrupt core. You have to _understand! _

'You hurt me so, Vash... It hurts me that I have to hurt you. But you refuse to see what humans truly are – so I will show you!' With something between a growl and a whine, Knives again sank his fingers into his short hair, tugging freely.

Why? Why? Why would Vash choose loneliness and sorrow over the one that was more like him than any other? Why?! _WHY?!_

_- Master...? -_

It was like a tentative mental caress, cool psychic fingers briefly touching his fevered thoughts. But it wasn't the soothing presence that Knives wished to sense. Calming, gentle though they were, the threads of awareness that extended towards him were undeniably human. Knives purposefully didn't spare his strength. Lashing out, he sank telepathic barbs into Legato's mental essence to complete the connection that the human psychic sought.

Through the ginger link between them, Knives was distantly aware how Legato's body seized up from his master's sudden, punishing presence in his mind. Although he could sense Legato sagged onto his knees, body quaking in lieu of the pain of the mental onslaught, the human did not attempt to shield himself in any fashion.

A savage satisfaction bubbled up from deep inside Knives, deeply dark like a boiling tar pit. It eased his mind to share his own suffering with an ever more deserving human.

_- What the fuck do you want? - _

The telepathic query was harsh. Knives made no effort of hiding the displeasure he felt at Legato's mind seeking out his in such an intimate manner.

Legato's reply did not come in the form of words. The human's senses opened up to Knives in humble invitation for the Plant to experience what Legato was experiencing. Knives could feel the tepid night air as though he was there, aware that jagged rocks bit into Legato's knees through his clothing.

What good was this to him? Scowling to himself, Knives was about to pull away, intending to leave his servant with nothing but a brutal reprimand for his forwardness. That's when the screaming started.

The howl of agony that struck up was off pitch. It was the sharp shriek of a woman's voice. It lasted, lasted, the wail spreading ever thinner, turning more guttural. With a final sputter, it died, a delicate patter of dripping liquid lacing the sound of the final gurgle.

The interim was only brief. A chorus of several human voices swelled, fed to Knives through Legato's awareness. Another shrill voice screeched, maintaining its pure note of agony impossibly long. It was counterpointed by a baritone voice wheezing panted pleas.

'Don't-! L-Let her go! Please! Stop-! STOP!'

When the woman's cry was silenced abruptly, muting with an undignified yelp, the man's horror crescendoed into a shouting song of lamentation. 'YOU MONSTER! I'll ki-_AAAAH!' _

There was discordant majesty in the way the bass tone of that voice was heightened by several octaves as he howled the last measures of his existence before tapering off into delicate silence.

More and more layers were being woven in, the melody building. The snapping of bones was the percussion to which the music of genocide was set, bringing rhythm to the mellifluous sounds of human suffering. Howls for mercy were the verses that flowed back into a refrain of outcries. Dissonant though the many voices were in tune, their suffering blended perfectly together to create Legato's hymn, dedicated to his master.

Lowering himself down amidst his sheets, Knives smiled up into the surrounding darkness. When he closed his eyes, he saw flashes of the scarlet flowers that Legato's eyes beheld, blooming in the lifeless dirt with a splatter. With the sweet notes of human death effectively drowning out his troubled thoughts, Millions Knives was lulled into a peaceful sleep.

**FIN**

Author's Note: Thank you very much for your time! Comments are always appreciated.


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